By KINGSLEY OMONOBI
ABUJA—President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday frowned on incessant and recurring bloodbath and other avoidable crisis in the country that has led to personnel of the armed forces and other security agencies paying the supreme price and bringing untold hardship to their families and dependants, warning that without unity, the nation’s development would be doomed.

In the aftermath of the PDP presidential primaries which produced him as winner over former Vice President Atiku, Jonathan noted that the nation’s diversity should not be seen as a hindrance but resources that could be exploited for the development, warning that crises only served to draw the nation backward.

He made the disclosure, just as President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, called on Nigerians to go out to register, pointing out that those going on pilgrimage would have to produce their voters’ cards before boarding flight.

President Jonathan, who spoke at the 2011 Armed Forces Remembrance Day denominational service held at the National Christian Centre amidst tight security, called on the congregation and Nigerians to pray for the country’s armed forces and other security agencies, saying their work had continued to keep the nation together.

Disclosing that Nigerians sometimes seemed to dwell more on the excesses of some personnel, the president called on Nigerians to remember them in prayers as they were people who had sworn to die for other Nigerians to live.

“You will recall immediately after independence in 1960, a week after Nigeria sent her first contingent for peacekeeping in the Congo’s. From that time till today, including the civil war, the crisis in the Niger Delta and other parts of the country, including some parts of the north, people have been paying dearly, passing sleepless nights; people have paid the supreme price for the country to remain peaceful, for us to live and move freely.

“These people need to be remembered; they are mainly in our Armed Forces, the Police and other security agencies. Sometimes, we always  look at the excesses and some of the individuals in these services, sometimes we probably don’t really appreciate the kind of job they have been doing over the period and the sacrifices they make.”

It is only when you are affected by the loss that you appreciate their work”.

“If you are a lady by the time you return from the market and you are told that your husband was shot dead by an armed robber or a militant or a religious activist, that is the time you will know that these people are people we should all pray for always. This is a segment of our population that has signed to die for us to live.

“Today we remember those who have passed on and call on all Nigerians to pray for them, their widows, children and dependants that God will provide a window for them to cushion the suffering of those whose husbands paid the supreme sacrifice for this nation.

“We use this opportunity to call on all Nigerians to live in unity because for a nation to grow, for us to develop, we must be united in all aspect of our endeavours. Just like in a company, if all management staff decides to do what they like, definitely that company will collapse, if you are leading a disunited army to war, definitely you will not win the war, so as a nation for us to develop we must unite”.

“We also call on Nigerians not to see ourselves as different people, yes we are diverse crop of people, we are talking about 250 ethnic groups, even our environment is different from coastal to dessert, but all these diversity should be converted to our strength because that is how God has created it. The diversity of the environment and of the individual is a major resource that could be exploited to strengthen our development”.

“If we unite and work together as people with common destiny, then surely Nigeria will get to where it wants to go, surely our hopes and dreams that by the year 2020 we will play big at the level of our economy will be realized. But if we don’t unite and continue to see ourselves as pockets of individuals that exist on an island, that have no relationship with others then our development will be doomed”.

“So my brothers and sisters, we plead with all of us to join hand together as a people with common destiny and aspirations so that we get to our promised land” he said.

Earlier in his sermon titled “Leadership that stands out”, the President of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, using Prophet Nehemiah as an example listed five things that differentiated him from other leaders who tried to build the walls of Jerusalem for years but failed while he succeeded in 52 days, insisting that if Nigerian leaders do same the country and the people will not continue to be in abject poverty.

According to the CAN President, Nehemiah feared God, stressing “a leader that does not fear God would make himself god. A leader that does not fear god becomes a master instead of a servant”.

Oritsejafor also said Nehemiah identified with the people, adding “a good leader would sit where the people sit, feel what the people feel so that he would know what the people need and therefore be able to do what is right.

The CAN President said Nehemiah was focused, adding that there are many things that can make a leader loose focus but one of the most important of them is the kind of advisers that he has and those that are constantly around him. If a leader must succeed, he must have people aside from those who tell him what he wants to hear. There are people who love him and are sincere enough to give him good advice and tell him the truth”.

Prayers were said for the armed forces, Nigeria, National Assembly and Judiciary, for peaceful elections and for the fallen heroes and their family.

Also present at the interdenominational service were the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, the President’s mother, representative of the Senate President, the ministers, the Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chiefs, and  heads of other security agencies se representative of the Inspector General of Police.